This invention relates to snell holders and more particularly to snell holders having an elongated snell-receiving body with an anchor at one end and an eccentric handle at the other.
Few things are as annoying and frustrating to fishermen as the problem of unraveling a tangled mass of snells as a preliminary to getting their equipment ready for fishing. Efforts to overcome the problem have led to the creation of a variety of snell holders (sometimes called fishing leader holders). To the extent known, they all suffer from serious defects. For example, a snell holder dangling from an overhead object not only presents a safety hazard but also some difficult handling problems when a snell is affixed or removed from it. Some snell holders are little more than xe2x80x9ccontainersxe2x80x9d in that they have to be handled as discrete items in the fisherman""s hands while wrapping and unwrapping snells. They can""t be anchored anywhere and their very nature makes them susceptible to being tumbled around on the floor of a boat or in a box of fishing gear. They present a safety hazard as well as a potential for snagging, and they require tedious motions to wrap and unwrap snells about them. Still other discrete snell holders have complex frames and support elements at each end of the holder; they likewise lack ease of handling for wrapping and unwrapping snells about the holder portion of the devices.
The long and short of it is that a snell holder that permits quick and easy and stable wrapping of snells about the same for storage purposes and quick and easy and reliable unwrapping without snagging has long been sought. This invention provides a clear and simple and reliable solution to that problem.
The new snell holder of this invention is easily loaded for storage of snells between periods of use and easily unloaded without snarling of snells at the time of selecting any stored snell for use. The method of use is exceedingly simple.
The new snell holder has an elongated, compressible, puncturable and at least modestly resilient snell-receiving body. At one end of that body, and solely at one end, is an anchor for mounting the body at a desired orientation for the elongated body. At the other end of the body is an eccentric handle for effecting hand rotation of the body with respect to the anchor. Along the outer surface of the elongated body is a pattern of spaced catches for attachment of the non-hook end of a snell to the body so that upon rotation of the body by the eccentric handle, the length of the snell line extending from the attached end at the catch can conveniently be wrapped around the body and the hook end pressed into the body to maintain the snell in wrapped condition on the body.
Ideally, a snell holder of the invention will have two main parts. One is a foundation structure having an elongated support shaft with a central axis and having an anchor fixed solely at one end of the support shaft for mounting the foundation structure on another object at a desired orientation for the support shaft. The other part is an elongated, compressible, puncturable, and at least modestly resilient snell-receiving body having a central axis about which the body is rotatable. The body is mounted on the foundation structure so that the support shaft of the foundation structure projects into the snell-receiving body from one end only, and with the axis of the body substantially coinciding with the central axis of the support shaft. An eccentric handle is mounted at the end of the body opposite the end receiving the projection of the support shaft, and the body additionally has a pattern of spaced catches on its outer surface along its elongated length for attachment of the non-hook end of a snell to the body.
The snell-receiving body of this invention may itself be marketed as an article of commerce for mounting on a foundation structure.
Still other advantages and features and benefits and characteristics of the invention will be evident as this description proceeds.